A survey of the educational system of the Philippine islands by the Board of educational survey, created under acts 3162 and 3196 of the Philippine Legislature.

HEALTH AND PHYSICAL EDUCATION

475

and study. Certainly this is a problem of fundamental importance to
the Filipino people. It is one of the first problems in research to be
undertaken by a supervisor of health andphysical education.
HYGIENE OF INSTRUCTION.-Generally the teachers observe well
the hygiene of instruction. As a group they are uniformly good natured,
and rarely too exacting. Some procedures however, are at fault. It
is clearly a mistake for first-grade children to use small seeds for the
making of letters. These tiny objects are too small for the young children to work with, requiring a type of motor control for which as
yet they are not physiologically prepared. This work should be
abandoned.
POSTURE OF SCHOOL CHILDREN.-Postural exercises for a few minutes a day are totally ineffective for their purpose. The teacher herself must be continually on the alert to correct improper posture and more
particularly to foster by example and, by method and procedure in
the development of ideas, a basis for good body expression. The way
in which the school generation will walk, sit, and stand ten years from
now rests largely in the procedures of the school teacher today.
INSTRUCTION IN HEALTH
Health education has two phases: health supervision and health instruction. The former has been discussed.
The purpose of instruction of hygiene, physiology, and sanitation in
the primary and intermediate schools is to influence favorably the living
habits of the child. In no real sense can these be considered academic
subjects; they are primarily to influence living. The only satisfactory
test of their effectiveness would lie in the degree and quality of their
application.
It is conceivable, however, that hygiene, sanitation, and particularly
physiology, may be taught in the high school and in some cases in the
upper intermediate grades as scientific subjects using the laboratory,
materials, and methods which these sciences demand. The test of the
effectiveness of such teaching is not alone the application of the material
to life problems but the accuracy of the teaching, the quality of the
method, and the presence or absence of a scientific spirit.
HYGIENE, PHYSIOLOGY, AND SANITATION IN THE SEVENTH
GRADES.-In all schools visited this was clearly an academic subject.
It was not organized nor taught in relation to skills, habits, or attitudes,
but was presented as a content subject in which the chief business of
the pupil was to give to the teacher what had been memorized from the
book. Where attempts were made to apply the material, the teacher
was so clearly without adequate background that much of the technic
was faulty. On the other hand, to judge it as a scientific subject, ob